Consensus 2018

Last week Saifu co-founder Alexander Legoshin attended Consensus 2018. The conference was a three-day event focused on cryptocurrencies and the blockchain industry, and is easily the biggest crypto event of the year, with 8,500 attendees this year. Speakers include Jack Dorsey, CEO of Twitter; Fred Smith, FedEx chairman; James Bullard, President of the St Louis Federal Reserve; and Saifu advisor Timothy Enneking, Managing Director of Crypto Asset Management, LP.

The event started with a “protest” staged by Bankers Against Bitcoin, a parody group who want to raise awareness of the coming changes to the financial services industry that blockchain technology will bring. It concluded with a discussion between Jack Dorsey and Elizabeth Stark, the chief executive of Lightning Labs.

One presentation we found particularly interesting was given by Linda Pawczuk of international accountancy giant Deloitte (full disclosure: Saifu has contracted Deloitte for auditing services). Deloitte surveyed more than 1,000 executives across seven nations at major firms in financial services, technology, media and communications, and healthcare. The data indicate mostly bullish sentiment towards blockchain technology. Some highlights include:

84% of respondents agreed that the blockchain is broadly scalable and will reach mainstream adoption.

59% believe in blockchain technology’s potential to disrupt their industries and the overall economy.

43% of respondents identify blockchain as one of their “top five strategic priorities.”

When asked which blockchain use cases they are working on, 53% of respondents identified supply chain-focused systems, 51% reported Internet of Things integration projects and over 40% highlighted efforts around digital records.

Almost 30% of respondents have already joined an existing consortium, with 45% saying they are likely to join one within the next year. And over 13% say they are interested in starting a consortium of their own.

One question in the survey asked respondents to identify what they saw as organizational barriers to greater investment in blockchain technology. The three largest issues identified were:

Regulatory issues: 39%

Implementation — replacing or adapting to legacy systems: 37%

Potential security threats: 35%

At Saifu we found this particularly insightful, as it mirrors the precise challenges identified by founders Alexander Legoshin and Evgeny Vigovksy when they first created the company two years ago. These precise problems are what we have worked so diligently to solve with the Saifu platform.

To address regulatory uncertainty, we’ve chosen to be regulated by the Czech National Bank (CNB). Our license from the CNB imposes strict liquidity requires, as well as thorough Know Your Client (KYC) and Anti-Money-Laundering (AML) policies. And as mentioned above, Saifu is regularly audited by Deloitte. To ease technological adoption, we’ve created a simple, user-friendly platform that doesn’t require any crypto expertise — anyone who can use their bank’s app or website can use Saifu. And to protect our users’ cryptocurrency from potential security threats, we’ve partnered with global security firm Thales to create nThales Hardware Security Modules. Our users’ cryptocurrency keys are born in these modules, and cannot be accessed without technicians being physically present, and inserting keycards. This means your keys are protected, even if we’re hacked.

We’re excited by the turnout at Consensus 2018 and the overall positive sentiment towards blockchain technology. We agree with the survey respondents’ assessment of barriers to greater adoption of blockchain technology and cryptocurrencies, and we’re proud that we’ve already spent two years developing solutions to address those issues. Follow Saifu’s progress on Telegram, Twitter, Facebook, and reddit.